II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 2420
To amend the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to provide for the
automatic appointment of judges to the District of Columbia courts
without the advice and consent of the Senate, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JULY20, 2023
Mr. C
ARPER(for himself, Mr. VANHOLLEN, Mr. KAINE, Mr. CARDIN, and
Mr. B
OOKER) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and re-
ferred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To amend the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to pro-
vide for the automatic appointment of judges to the
District of Columbia courts without the advice and con-
sent of the Senate, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘District of Columbia 4
Courts Judicial Vacancy Reduction Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. AUTOMATIC APPOINTMENT OF JUDGES TO DIS-6
TRICT OF COLUMBIA COURTS. 7
(a) A
PPOINTMENTS BYPRESIDENT.— 8
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(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 433(a) of the Dis-1
trict of Columbia Home Rule Act (sec. 1–204.33(a), 2
D.C. Official Code) is amended by striking ‘‘the 3
President shall nominate’’ and all that follows and 4
inserting the following: ‘‘from the list of persons rec-5
ommended by the District of Columbia Judicial 6
Nomination Commission established under section 7
434, the President shall appoint all judges of the 8
District of Columbia courts.’’. 9
(2) C
ONFORMING AMENDMENTS .—Section 433 10
of such Act (sec. 1–204.33, D.C. Official Code) is 11
further amended— 12
(A) in the heading, by striking ‘‘
NOMINA-13
TION AND’’; 14
(B) in subsection (b)— 15
(i) in the matter preceding paragraph 16
(1), by striking ‘‘nominated or’’; 17
(ii) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘his 18
nomination’’ and inserting ‘‘the appoint-19
ment’’; 20
(iii) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘his 21
nomination’’ and inserting ‘‘the appoint-22
ment’’; 23
(iv) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘the 24
President, for such nomination and ap-25
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pointment,’’ and inserting ‘‘the President 1
for such appointment’’; and 2
(v) in paragraph (5), by striking ‘‘his 3
nomination’’ and inserting ‘‘the appoint-4
ment’’; and 5
(C) in subsection (c)— 6
(i) in the fifth sentence, by striking 7
‘‘then the President may nominate’’ and all 8
that follows and inserting ‘‘the President 9
may reappoint such candidate as judge.’’; 10
(ii) in the sixth sentence, by striking 11
‘‘not to so nominate such declaring can-12
didate, he shall nominate another can-13
didate’’ and inserting ‘‘not to so reappoint 14
such declaring candidate, the President 15
shall appoint another candidate’’; and 16
(iii) in the seventh sentence, by strik-17
ing ‘‘then the President shall not submit to 18
the Senate for advice and consent the re-19
nomination of the declaring candidate as 20
judge’’ and inserting ‘‘the President shall 21
not reappoint the declaring candidate as 22
judge’’. 23
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(3) CLERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of con-1
tents of such Act is amended by amending the item 2
relating to section 433 to read as follows: 3
‘‘Sec. 433. Appointment of judges.’’.
(b) APPOINTMENTS BY JUDICIALNOMINATIONCOM-4
MISSION.—Section 434(d) of such Act (sec. 1–204.34(d), 5
D.C. Official Code) is amended— 6
(1) in paragraph (1)— 7
(A) in the first sentence, by striking ‘‘for 8
possible nomination and appointment’’ and in-9
serting ‘‘for possible appointment’’; 10
(B) in the second sentence, by striking 11
‘‘more than one nominee’’ and inserting ‘‘more 12
than one person’’; 13
(C) in the third sentence, by striking ‘‘of 14
nominees’’; and 15
(D) in the fourth sentence— 16
(i) by striking ‘‘the President fails to 17
nominate, for Senate confirmation,’’ and 18
inserting ‘‘the President fails to appoint’’; 19
and 20
(ii) by striking ‘‘the Commission shall 21
nominate, and with the advice and consent 22
of the Senate, appoint’’ and inserting ‘‘the 23
Commission shall appoint’’; and 24
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(2) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘nomination’’ 1
each place it appears and inserting ‘‘appointment’’. 2
SEC. 3. AUTHORIZING CONGRESS TO PREVENT APPOINT-3
MENT THROUGH RESOLUTION OF DIS-4
APPROVAL. 5
(a) R
ESOLUTIONS OFDISAPPROVAL.—Part C of title 6
IV of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act (sec. 1– 7
204.31 et seq., D.C. Official Code) is amended by insert-8
ing after section 434 the following new section: 9
‘‘
AUTHORIZING CONGRESS TO PREVENT APPOINTMENT 10
THROUGH RESOLUTION OF DISAPPROVAL 11
‘‘S
EC. 434A. (a) REQUIRINGTRANSMISSION OFNO-12
TICE OFAPPOINTMENT TOCONGRESS.—Notice of the ap-13
pointment of a judge of a District of Columbia court under 14
this part shall be transmitted to the Speaker of the House 15
of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the 16
Senate by— 17
‘‘(1) the President, in the case of an appoint-18
ment under section 433; or 19
‘‘(2) the District of Columbia Judicial Nomina-20
tion Commission, in the case of an appointment 21
under section 434(d)(1). 22
‘‘(b) T
IMING OFAPPOINTMENT.—The appointment 23
of a judge of the District of Columbia courts shall take 24
effect upon the expiration of the 60-calendar-day period 25
(excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, and any day 26
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on which neither House is in session because of an ad-1
journment sine die, a recess of more than three days, or 2
an adjournment of more than three days) beginning on 3
the date on which notice of the appointment is transmitted 4
to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the 5
President pro tempore of the Senate under subsection (a), 6
unless during such 60-calendar-day period there has been 7
enacted into law a joint resolution disapproving of the ap-8
pointment. 9
‘‘(c) A
PPLICATION OFEXPEDITEDPROCEDURES FOR 10
C
ONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTIONS OFDISAPPROVAL OF 11
C
OUNCILACTS TOCONSIDERATION OFRESOLUTIONS OF 12
D
ISAPPROVAL OFAPPOINTMENT OFJUDGES.— 13
‘‘(1) A
PPLICATION OF PROCEDURES .—The pro-14
visions of section 604 shall apply with respect to a 15
joint resolution described in paragraph (2) in the 16
same manner and to the same extent as such provi-17
sions apply to a joint resolution which is described 18
in section 604(b) and which disapproves an act of 19
the District of Columbia Council which is trans-20
mitted pursuant to section 602(c)(1). 21
‘‘(2) R
ESOLUTIONS DESCRIBED .—A resolution 22
described in this paragraph is a resolution, the mat-23
ter after the resolving clause of which is as follows: 24
‘That the llllllll disapproves of the ap-25
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pointment of llllllll as a judge of the 1
llllllll .’, with the first blank filled in 2
with the name of the House of Congress involved, 3
the second blank filled in with the name of the indi-4
vidual involved, and the third blank filled in with the 5
name of the District of Columbia court involved, but 6
does not include any resolution which specifies more 7
than one action.’’. 8
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 9
of such Act is amended by inserting after the item relating 10
to section 434 the following new item: 11
‘‘Sec. 434A. Authorizing Congress to prevent appointment through resolution of
disapproval.’’.
SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.
12
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The amendments made by this 13
Act shall apply with respect to appointments of judges of 14
the District of Columbia courts which are made on or after 15
the date of the enactment of this Act. 16
(b) T
RANSITIONRULE FORCURRENTNOMINEES.— 17
Section 434A of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act 18
(as added by section 3(a)) shall apply with respect to an 19
individual whose nomination as a judge of the District of 20
Columbia courts is pending as of the date of the enact-21
ment of this Act as follows: 22
(1) In the case of an individual nominated by 23
the President under section 433 of such Act (as in 24
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effect prior to the effective date of this Act), the 1
President shall be deemed to have transmitted notice 2
of the appointment of the individual as a judge of 3
the District of Columbia courts to the Speaker of 4
the House of Representatives and the President pro 5
tempore of the Senate on the date of the enactment 6
of this Act. 7
(2) In the case of an individual nominated by 8
the District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Com-9
mission under section 434 of such Act (as in effect 10
prior to the effective date of this Act), the Commis-11
sion shall be deemed to have transmitted notice of 12
the appointment of the individual as a judge of the 13
District of Columbia courts to the Speaker of the 14
House of Representatives and the President pro 15
tempore of the Senate on the date of the enactment 16
of this Act. 17
Æ
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